She's Not There
by Eternal-Night-Ride
Summary: Julie dies in a tragic car accident when she's only 14 years old. There's a stretch of road, empty and desolate except for the occasional lampposts dotting the street. Two years later, Ben decides to drive through that street and finds a hitchhiker.
1. Valentine is Done

**She's Not There**

Chapter 1: Valentine is Done

Pitter, patter.

She did tell her mom that she needed picking up. The stupid motor scooter was at home, unable to start. The engine produced strange sounds and conked out as she tried to start it, making her a bit scared to take it out. So she left it. Now she needed picking up. The rain continued to trickle lightly on the roof. Unfortunately something came up and her mom said that she had to hurry over to the hospital.

_Couldn't she just catch the bus home?_ That would have been possible earlier in the day, when the bus was still available. It stopped an hour ago.

Julie kicked at the tennis ball beside her foot while releasing a frustrated sound. The yellow ball rolled into the glistening grass. Dots of rain water darkened the yellow color. There was still the fluorescent light from the covered section of the tennis court that connected to the washrooms. The school was relatively bright even if the sky was darkened. It was even darker from the rain clouds.

She could wait for her dad to finish work, but that would mean being stuck there for even longer. Five hours until her dad was finished working overtime. She was hungry and tired. After that rigorous tennis practice, all that she could imagine was the soft comforts of home.

It wasn't that she blamed her mom for the issue. It wasn't her fault that her grandmother needed to be rushed to the hospital. Nonetheless, like most people, she still resented the fact that she had to be stuck in the tennis court waiting for no one.

Pitter, patter.

_Whatever._ She was going home.

Picking up the tennis rackets, she hurried over to the lockers and stuffed them inside. She couldn't bring them home because they added to the things she had to carry and her bag was filled to the brim with books. She still needed to study some math and science. Her teacher hinted at the start of the year that he would give them 'surprise' tests on math. Being so focused on getting to the grand finals match of her school's tennis competition, she was starting to slack on her studies. With the weekend coming up, she'd have plenty of time revising her work.

With her bag hefted on her back and her pink hoodie on her head, she strolled outside of the campus. There was a shortcut. Sort of. It would take her about thirty minutes to walk to her house unlike the longer walk through the main road - _this would have been five minutes if her mom was there_. She released another frustrated hiss.

Either way, it was still better than five hours staring at the rain.

Pitter, patter.

* * *

He's been driving through that stretch of road for a while. The road was relatively empty. There was a new road that passed by stores and was relatively close to civilization. He liked to use this one because it was empty and he could get home faster.

Now he was really too sleepy. He could have sworn he saw a strange light and a woman with long pale hair suddenly appear on the side of the road as he sped past. Must have been his imagination. The fact that he was sleepy was a bit strange, considering it wasn't even that late. It was probably the work at the office that exhausted him so badly.

Either way, he was close to home now. He could speed a little faster to get there. Another strange light. _What in the world?_

He opened his eyes. _Shoot. _Focusing even harder on the road, he noticed briefly that there was a figure walking on the footpath. The person was illuminated rather badly by the occasional lampposts.

When he opened his eyes again later, he was in an entire world of hurt. From what he could see through the haze of pain, the lamppost in front of him had caved in. It collapsed on top of his car roof that it dented it low enough to reach his head.

The air bag was preventing him to see something. He should have had that chair fixed because the crash had shifted his chair towards the dashboard and wedged him in place. Trying to shift even through the pain, he was able to notice something pink. With a lot of red.

_Oh, f-_

* * *

The alarm rang. He shot out of bed with a lot of flailing limbs. Grogginess plus growing teenage body had produced the unfortunate formula of falling out of bed in a crumpled heap. Groaning, the Savior of the Universe collected himself for his imaginary audience.

Monday mornings were just _great. _After stumbling gracelessly to a stand, he stretched lazily and yawned. He didn't feel like he had enough sleep but that happened most Monday mornings. He hated having to force himself awake to go to a place he disliked.

After taking a bath, he started brushing his teeth and stared at himself in front of the mirror. Occasionally he fidgeted and brush back his wet hair out of the way. It wasn't really bothering his view.

"So I was thinking, did you want to go out sometime?" No. That sounded uncertain and nervous. Girls liked self-confidence. Well, that is, if Kevin was a legitimate example. "Do you want to go out sometime?" Maybe not with that much confidence. He sounded like he wasn't going to get to get a 'no'. He coughed. As he opened his mouth again, there was a knock on the bathroom.

"Ben, why are you taking so long?" a female voice asked. "You'll be late for school."

"I'll be out in a minute, mom," he called out.

The night was his actual life. He wasn't saying that in a weird way or anything. It was just that after school, when everything normal teenage life was over, he was able to do what he did best. Kick bad guy butts.

"Took you a while to get here," the darker haired boy greeted.

He closed the door of his DMX. "I was busy doing something," he reasoned out dismissively. He looked around with greater alertness. "So how far into completion is that ship of the Forever Knights?"

"What were you busy doing anyway?" Kevin continued to insist, a smirk rising on his face. "Let me guess. Elena?"

"Bw- wait, wha-?" the over confident savior of the whole entire Universe stuttered. Defensively, he nearly half-shouted out in nervousness, "I haven't even asked her out yet!"

"Wuss," was the simple response.

Half-lidded in annoyance, he said, "Shut up." A red-haired girl was strolling to where they were, the pink energy from her eyes disappearing as she stepped towards them. There was slightly hopeful smile on his face. "I just need a little push, okay?"

"No way," she bit back almost immediately. Gwen and Elena just loved being fre-nemies. They were friends because they backed each other up and fought to keep the other alive while in battle. But looking at them at a peaceful, normal environment would give other people the wrong idea. They were like Ben and Kevin back at the start of their team-up, except in a more subtle way. It was probably a girl thing. "She calls me a freak." Which was true. Elena had a habit of resenting most other Plumber's kids. They had their powers and she had none. Elena had to fight for her position harder than anyone else. "I'm not helping you get a date with someone who calls me a freak." This made Ben's shoulders droop. Irritably, she changed the subject, "Can we get back to more important things, like the Forever Knights?"

"I did ask before," he remarked in annoyance. "Where's Ship?"

"He only comes when he can be bothered, Ben," Gwen responded simply, shrugging. They met the Galvanic Mechamorph going through a drive that night, where the symbiote followed Kevin's car to lead them to the injured Baz-el. The Mechamorph had taken over the car and Kevin's attempts to get rid of it were all thwarted, even their attempt to leave the car which Kevin protested to. They couldn't even do that because they were locked in. They were lead straight to the crashed ship. Since Baz-el no longer needed the symbiote, Ship was left with them. Gwen volunteered to keep the Mechamorph. She only kept him when Ship cared to stay.

"Okay," he said uncertainly, an eyebrow raised in question. "Have we got a plan B?"

"Dude," Kevin raised both hands in laid-back manner. "My plan B's called Rustbucket number two."

"It's space-worthy now?" Green eyes widened excitedly. "Can I drive it?"

There was a derisive male laugh. "No."

* * *

Surprisingly, the action didn't take long and they didn't even need to drive Rustbucket II into space. Which Ben found to be a bit of a shame. Now they were all on their way home.

There was renovation on the main road. Most of the drivers going through took that road regardless of the traffic. Since Kevin needed to drop his cousin off, he was forced to take that road just like all the other motorists. That road was closer to her place but the traffic probably won't make it seem like that.

The dark road wasn't patrolled, it was also old which meant it was pock-marked everywhere and pitch black except for the occasional lamppost. The road he was taking was stupid and risky. While Kevin was usually the kind of guy to do what he was currently doing, Gwen's presence on his passenger seat was inclining him to be a little less reckless. He also didn't need to drop off Ben, who now had his own car.

Ben was incredibly enthusiastic about the freedom. Now that he was alone in the car, he was able to get away with doing something stupid without someone berating him for it.

There he was driving through a dark road and every now and again there was a light other than the one from his headlights. There was limited light on the area. It was getting kind of creepy. The most inopportune thought decided to pass through his head as he drove through the street. Aliens were real. Were urban legends and ghost stories so farfetched in the face of that fact?

Then again, those things were totally different. One was scientific and the other wasn't. So the others couldn't be real. Exactly. Sort of. One thing was for sure, though: late night plus little stimulation plus overactive imagination equalled visions at the corner of his eyes. Being Savior of the Universe was nothing in the face of something he couldn't punch.

His foot was pressing harder on the accelerator.

To try and combat the overwhelming silence, he turned up the radio. The quiet tune of the music that got louder filtered past the noise of his car engine.

"_Seasons don't fear the reaper_," the singer crooned in a haunting voice. "_Nor do the wind, the sun or the rain. We can be like they are._" Now he was getting too scared. This music wasn't the best one to play at that time, so he tried to crank it way down but the radio was refusing his attempts and remained the same loudness as it used to be even at zero volume. Goosebumps ran along his skin.

"_Come on baby, don't fear the reaper. Baby take my hand, don't fear the reaper_." Not cool. What was wrong with his car?

He tried to change the channels. After a moment of static, the music continued to play. It just bridged the lyrics of the previously sung parts.

Static. "…_gone. Came the last night of sadness. And it was clear she couldn't go on_." He turned off the radio. Thankfully, it stopped. The next sound that came to his ears was his heart pounding, his breathing heavy and the car engine revving - speeding - over the bumpy streets. He needed to slow down or aliens wouldn't kill him one day. It would be some dumb car accident.

As he slowed to the proper speed limit, posted at the very start where it was practically falling off its pole, he noticed a figure on the sidewalk. Now that was just weird. Who would have been walking through that place at that time?

From where he was, he noticed the person had a pink hoodie and a white skirt on. As his car drew closer, he noticed how drenched the clothes were, how much the skirt stuck to her legs and the hood drooped around her face. That was just strange. The weather report was surprisingly accurate that day and there was no rain. What was she doing at the time? Taking a shower with her clothes on and walking through a dark road in the middle of winter? He raised his eyebrow. Either way, weird as the girl was, he couldn't help but feel inclined to help her out.

She probably needed a ride. It would have been easy to get through the road if she was in a car but not if she was walking.

So he slowed down as he neared her. She continued to walk. He rolled down the mirror. He could see the black tendrils of hair through the hood, dripping every now and again. The girl wouldn't even look at his car.

"Hey," he called out, a little shyly.

He was not good with girls. Even after the explosion of fame he had through the revelation of his Ultimatrix to the public. All the girls afterwards were put through a screen of distrust and Gwen only further reinforced that belief. Fifteen minutes of fame was ensured when they stuck themselves to his arm. While he wasn't quite as cynical as Gwen, his confidence wasn't enough to trust just any girl. He tried dating this incredibly famous actress once. _That turned out just damn perfectly_.

Not the time to annoy himself though.

She still hadn't turned around. Maybe she didn't hear him. He stated louder, "Do you need a ride?" The girl looked on forward, as if she didn't even hear him. Now he was just a little ticked off. At least she just needed to say that she didn't need a ride.

"Fine," he muttered. "Be that way." He stepped on the accelerator. He didn't even look back.

It was probably a good thing that he didn't because if he did, he would find that there was no one there.

* * *

A/N: Pairings: Julie/Ben/Elena (I'll bring her in shortly XD). Kevin/Gwen.

Genre: Angst/Romance/Horror (just little smidgeons here and there. ;P)

I'm hoping to maintain Ben's character through this especially since it handles his POV primarily.

I actually dreamed of this plot and I've been juggling it secretly to myself ever since my returned obsession to Junji Ito's works and "Fuan no Tane". My brain knows I loves the Benlie angst and keeps suggesting ideas. I was originally more of a horror writer, not a romance one. :D That's why I'm so partial to urban legends and dark romances.


	2. Time Cannot Erase

Chapter 2: Time Cannot Erase

Ethereal. Pale, pale skin against a backdrop of black. The lady in white.

He was freezing. He wondered if she was too. Because of how pale she was, he wondered if she was already frozen.

Gathering his green jacket around him, he tried to approach the girl walking quietly on the path walk. Street lights lit her up every now and again. The light was too stark from the fluorescent that her already pale skin seemed to become translucent and her short black hair looked almost like shadows in darkness.

She stopped at one of the lampposts, so crooked that it would probably topple on top of her if she wasn't too careful.

He tried to shout out but his voice didn't come out. So he tried to run to her instead. Something was slowing him down because he couldn't quite get near her. He was getting towards her too slowly and his eyes widened at the lamppost caving in. Even at his distance, he could already see hints of something vibrant on her paper white clothing. Red.

He pushed even harder against the strange resistance forcing him away from saving the girl.

Dark eyes looked back at him. A sad smile woke him up.

* * *

That was when he shot up out of bed and started hyperventilating. When he finally controlled his breathing and the constant shaking, he was able to focus on the view outside the window. It was still pitch black.

With a frustrated groan, he dug his face into his pillow.

* * *

It was raining. The sounds of the water drizzling down his car roof and spraying on his windows were a little muted. Visibility was limited because of the cloud swathed sky. No moon or stars.

There was someone struggling to trudge on the sidewalk, against the wind and the battering rain.

The engine sounds of DX Mark10 rumbled low as he decelerated to a stop near the figure. He rolled down the windows saw the hood wrapped around the smiling face more clearly. Was it just him or her dark eyes adorned a happy glimmer when she caught sight of him? It was the kind people had when they felt recognition.

"Need a ride?" he asked, more confidently than he normally would. There was just something so inviting and friendly about her smile that he felt relaxed even if he was facing the one situation he insecure of. He tried not to stare.

"You are a lifesaver," she breathed out gratefully.

Something about what she said made the hair on his nape stand on end. As she pulled down the hoodie, the short black hair clinging to her face from the rainwater made him forget what he was thinking before. It probably wasn't important.

He clicked the lock open and reached out to push his passenger door open. While she made her way inside, she apologized sheepishly, "Sorry. I got your leather all wet."

He started choking on his spit.

There was innocent blinking as if to ask what was wrong. He just broke into awkward laughter and responded, "Nothing. It's nothing." Trying to change the subject, he spoke conversationally, "Horrible weather, huh?" He started fidgeting with his rear-view mirror. The road was so dark from the front or behind that it was like he was driving through nothing. If he wasn't careful, he'd be in a car accident.

"Tell me about it," she intruded through his thoughts, her slight annoyance accompanied with a roll of her eyes.

He asked curiously, "What were you doing walking in the rain?" _Like some kind of apparition._

There was a sigh from her. Another sign of annoyance. "I was late staying at school for tennis practice." She flashed him a big smile, which he responded to with a coaxing one. "Grand finals."

"Ooh! That's great!" he reacted in enthusiasm. _Did he know how that felt like! _"I got my fingers crossed for you." He blinked in confusion when he saw the mysteriously sad smile from the corner of his eye.

"Thank you," she stated sweetly, her quiet voice warming even more from the sentiment. "Anyway, I got caught in the rain because the bus schedule stops earlier than the time I finished. I thought someone was going to pick me up." There was an edginess to her voice, but the next thing she said sounded apologetic and tired. "But she was busy so I decided to commute. But nothing to commute on." The small pink clad shoulders shrugged. Resigned.

"They don't really expect schoolkids to be going home at this hour."

Placing her chin on her shoulder, her dark eyes stared owlishly at him. "How about you? You're going home a bit late for someone coming home from school." A pause. "Unless you have part time work or something."

Smiling in quiet amusement, he replied, "Or something."

"So, if it's not too impolite to ask," she started off.

"Well, it's not work I'm paid to do," he tried to introduce the conversation slowly. Some part of him was far too enthusiastic with the idea that she didn't know. One of those rare people who could talk to him and treat him normal. But if that weren't the case, he might as well just peel it off quickly like band-aid.

"Oh, sucks! Making you stay late for nothing. Is it work experience?" she clarified, trying to find out if she was on the right track.

_Well, not quite. _"Do you watch the news?" The confused blinking made him even more hopeful. Then he did this pose-y confident smile - chin raised, face slightly at an angle. It would usually have been accompanied with a fist on his hip but safe driving was more important. "Ben Ten. The Ben Tennyson?"

Then her eyes widened and his heart sunk. The situation could go either way. Hopefully, it was the better one. A cheeky smile began to stretch on her lips. "Oh! Menace or threat Ben Tennyson."

A long suffering groan. Through sulky down-turned lips, he muttered, "I hate that guy."

She giggled lightly, "I knew you were familiar."

Like an idiot, he let his mouth shoot off like he was being too defensive, "The stuff in the news, by the way. I'm not -"

"I think the stuff you get up to is really brave and noble," she stated resolutely when he started stuttering through his excuses. If he was looking at himself in the mirror, he would have probably been annoyed at how red his face was. Because of the darkness, his eyes were set on the road and only there. He barely saw the turn when he reached it and he slowed way down. If Kevin was there, he would have laughed at his snail pace.

"Any other kid with that kind of power would have abused it," she continued in a tone of admiration. _Well, actually. He did that too. XLR8 and chores. Gray Matter and homework. _"I don't always believe in the news. It's really biased."

With a cynical smile, he said, "I wish everyone's the same as you."

He could hear the shrug in her voice even if he barely saw it. "Why pay attention to people like that? Those are people whose opinions you shouldn't care about. They're set on their beliefs. Even the truth won't make them see that they're wrong. They'll just hate the idea that they're wrong and believe what they think of you even more."

It wasn't too far off to say he was floored. Laughing in amusement, he asked jokingly, "How old are you?" He tried to ignore the feeling that there was just something otherworldly about her. What she said only sort of emphasized it.

"Ripe old age of fourteen, sir," she reacted with a matching playful tone, dispelling his discomfort in an instant.

The chuckle in his throat escaped through his goofy grin. "That makes me feel so young at sixteen, old timer." Raising her tiny hand, she laughed at this. "But I'm the one with memory problems. For got to ask: where's your house?"

The adjoined suburb past the dark street just seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. _Weird. _

Turning her head from side to side, she explained, "We're close by. Just take that turn and three houses down is my place," with her finger pointing around helpfully. She looked back at him gratefully. "I really appreciate this, by the way."

Using one hand to steer, he waved a hand dismissively. "It's no problem." She was great company, anyway. Especially in the dark and rain that made the street so scary. He continued to look down her street. Something felt really odd now. A part of him was instinctively telling him to keep his eyes on the road and _never, ever _look at his adjacent seat. "Another question I forgot:" he continued to talk in nervousness. His eyes were pasted on the yellow lines blurring. "What's your name?"

At the corner of his eyes, the figure twitched beside him.

* * *

It was one of those dreams that when he woke up, his body physically jumped violently in place. That only happened in those dreams where he was Jetray and his Ultimatrix decided to time out randomly.

He groaned when he lifted his head off the pillow. _Why was his radio open? _

The singer crooned, "_Let me tell you 'bout the way she looked_."

His eyes glared at the window and the bright sun was practically glaring back at him. "_The way she acted, the color of her hair_."

Pushing off the blankets irritably, he felt like his eyelids were heavier than weights. "_Her voice was soft and cool, her eyes were clear and bright." _

Dragging his legs down the side of the bed, he cupped his pounding head in his hands. He felt so exhausted, like he actually hadn't been sleeping. Something was wrong with the radio that it sounded like a record that was slowed down, the singer voice deepened and became colder. "_But she's not there.._." The lyric felt like it was going on forever that the time he took to shut off the offending device in panic, the sentence had barely finished.

Entire body practically convulsing, his eyes stared bug-eyed at the radio as if it would suddenly come to life and bite him while he was holding it. _What in the world was going on?_

* * *

He sucked at soccer. There was no other way to describe it. He sucked so hard he might as well have been a black hole.

Elena was smirking at him as she said, "You know if I had a wooden stick, you'd be the yarn because I'm wiping the floor with you."

"Yeah, okay," he responded irritably, kicking at the grass. "I suck. Point taken. Noted. Filed." His voice was becoming more defensive and aggressive as he went on. When she straightened up from her crouched position and knitted her eyebrows, he clamped his mouth shut.

"Are you okay?" she asked in concern. "You're not in your A-game." It was probably redundant to say so but he didn't need to act even more like a jerk by rubbing it in.

Instead, he rubbed his fingers over his nose and smiled apologetically. "I didn't get enough sleep last night. I'm sorry."

Skewing her mouth to the side, she tucked the ball under one arm and placed her other hand on her hip. "You know what, let's take a break." As she strolled over to the benches to get a towel, she asked, "What do you wanna do in the meantime?"

He broke into a large grin. "Smoothie."

She shook her head in humor, "You are obsessed with that stuff."

"It's a perfectly fine and not unhealthy obsession," he stood up for it lightly, but his mind was too tired so the joke just came out flat and wishy-washy. He really needed to distract himself. Do something to just make himself feel a little bit better.

Coughing to clear his throat, he walked up to her and prepared to say something. Elena just looked back at him expectantly as he had his mouth opened. Then something in his brain decided to be a complete jerk. His sleep deprived mind came to think of her eyes as raised a little more on the sides, her black hair as shorter and straighter, her skin paler. That was when his throat clogged on something invisible and his mouth slammed shut.

"Okay, I'm going!" he said a little hurriedly while he turned around and started running to get his smoothie.

From behind him, he could hear her calling out his name in confusion.

* * *

Heart caught in his throat. Run. No matter how painful it was for his legs as his feet collided on the pavement, he pushed and pushed to run as fast he could. Run. Muscles complained as he continued to go faster. It didn't matter if he broke something.

_Was it stupid to hope? _He would swear up and down that he saw her fingers flinch still. _Was it stupid to ignore the wreck of metal and red? Was it stupid? _Then he was the dumbest person in the world and he couldn't care less about that fact.

When he was there, he slammed his hand so many times on his even dumber Omnitrix to work but he remained stubbornly human. He thought his wrist was going to break but he didn't stop trying.

Through it all, he was using his legs to push against the car, frantically kicking with both legs at the bumper just to get it to budge. Despite everything hurting as he forced his stupid human body to get the wreck off of her.

When he turned to look at the girl underneath the car, he thought the image would burn into his retinas. He gripped her in a painful way that he was secretly scared that she couldn't actually feel. He kept on kicking the broken metal as he leaned as well as he could, discomfited on the caved in streetlamp. More of her was pinned with it. But he ignored that and focused on what was more important. Important was kicking the stupid unmoving wreck with all his might.

He refused to care that there was just too much blood that he was actually slipping on it. All that he could hear was his own voice growing louder and louder with the effort.

_No. No, no. NO! _

* * *

When he shot out of bed, his voice box felt so raw. His dad had come in brandishing the alien gun in his room, followed closely by his mother wielding a blunt weapon.

All they found was him, body shaking violently and teeth chattering so hard his mother looked scared that he would bite his own tongue off.

"Ben, did you have a nightmare?" his mother asked worriedly, trying to rub off the cold from his arms. She probably thought all that trembling was from the cold. He wasn't so sure.

With knitted eyebrows, he looked off to nowhere in particular and answered honestly, "I don't know. I can't remember."

* * *

Every time. Every night. For eight consecutive days. A dream on the same street and the same girl. The dreams themselves became blurry when he woke up but the lingering knowledge was that it was about that street. After driving through it that one time and whatever it was that was left there never let him go.

Sleeping pills didn't work. It just made the dreams excruciatingly long and inescapable. So he just dropped the idea of taking them.

He just got more and more exhausted because sleep wasn't providing him any rest. One too many times, he woke up in the middle of class with a teacher staring down at him impatiently. Embarrassed smiles weren't doing anything now and he really needed to get his act together before his parents were called in to interfere. The school would think it was his Hero Time and not some insomnia-inducing recurring dream. He wasn't going to let the dreams stop his Hero Time.

Except he was scared about going back through that street so he resolved that the best way was to get Gwen to find a spell to cure his insomnia.

Either way, fate loved being a jerk to him and took whatever decision out of his hands. Earlier that week, his car was totalled by the Vreedle Brothers when they 'tested' an extremely advanced alien tech on his car. Kevin just found it amusing that it was finally his turn to have his car be destroyed during Hero Time.

This tech was something left in their hands by some aliens who regarded the artefact as a sacred religious object. It was to be safely transported across the galaxy to its home planet. They were the best bet for its protection. Annoyingly enough, it was also a weapon that the Vreedles thought they could successfully sell in the black market. They probably could have, but insomnia-frustrated Ben beat the living tar out of them. Even Gwen had to note his extreme reaction at that time.

So that day when he finally decided to talk to Gwen, only Kevin had a car.

While it was being fixed, he had to ride in Kevin's car as they went to look for crimes to stop. At the momentary stopover to drink his new smoothie obsession, he tried to talk to Gwen about his problem. Big fat smart idea, that one.

"You're dreaming about a girl," Gwen started awkwardly, for good reasons. He started blushing in equal parts embarrassment and annoyance. "You're telling me this because?"

* * *

A/N:

_Your face, it haunts my once pleasant dreams_

_Your voice, it chased away all the sanity in me._

This part of My Immortal lyrics was the center of this chapter. I hope it worked out. XD


	3. Bleed For Me

Chapter 3: Bleed for Me

"You're dreaming about a girl," Gwen started awkwardly, for good reasons. He started blushing in equal parts embarrassment and annoyance. "You're telling me this because?"

"Because I haven't been able to get a good night's sleep because of those dreams," he explained with as much discomfort as Gwen was demonstrating. "I was hoping you've got some spell or something to stop the insomnia."

"I got a good idea why," said a definitely masculine voice from behind him. Ben was already imagining the smart-assed grin before he even saw it. He had to groan as he turned around. The sing-song, teasing tone continued, "And someone's gonna know about it. Starts with 'E' and ends in 'lena'."

There was an angry, incoherent garble of protest that sounded like, 'Whatdoesthatevenhavetodowith-'

"Kevin," the red-head berated smoothly. "Don't be immature."

"That's like saying stop revolving around the sun, Earth," the brunette said, much to the stifled amusement of his cousin.

"Took you a while to come up with that one huh, Tennyson?" Kevin reacted without missing a beat. "Can't expect too much of Ben Ten without the one."

There was a long pause. "Oh!" the one being insulted piped in realization. Then decided to be offended about a prolonged set of seconds later. "Hey!" An Ultimatrix was activated and an arm was placed on the concrete to absorb the material. Manna encircled both boys trying to start a fight.

"That's it," Gwen snapped. Turning to Ben, she stated, "I'm going to look through my spell book on something for your insomnia." She turned to Kevin this time. "Take us home. Stopping fights is not my idea of spending my free time."

"I thought we were looking for criminals to bust," Kevin reminded in confusion, voice slightly strained because of the manna wrapped around his chest.

The Ultimatrix bearer yawned just in time as the older boy said this, giving Gwen even more reason to justify with, "We found nothing. I think it's a safe bet to call it a night. Ben's sleep-deprived and irritable." Her mouth flattened to a thin, impatient line as she looked Kevin over. "And you're always irritable. I'm not putting up with it."

There was a begrudging agreement and general consensus. Not that it stopped Kevin from doing something to amuse himself upon heading home. The altered V8 passed by the road of the accident, despite the renovations being over.

"Why are we going through here?" the brunette iterated slowly, feeling ice-cold dread wash down his spine.

"No traffic, lots of space, no cops and has a speed-all-you-want card all over it," the older boy replied simply, earning a disapproving look from his girlfriend.

After a brief pause, Ben decided to ask gravely, "How much did you hear from that conversation?"

"Everything," was the amused response, which prompted the Savior of the Universe to groan in a distinctly whiny teenager way. This just made Kevin laugh even harder.

"Kevin, will you stop teasing him and just go back to the main road?" Gwen requested flatly, massaging the bridge of her nose.

"Or Ben can stop being such a girl," Kevin retorted in even more amusement, receiving a glare from his girlfriend and her cousin.

"Kevin," she warned.

"Fine," he conceded begrudgingly, backing the car up to do a u-turn on the relatively empty road. A crack of thunder lit up the dark street. Then the rain slowly trickled down from the sky. In a few seconds, the rain became torrential. "Great," the older boy muttered irritably, imagining the downpour streaking mud all over his ride.

"The rain's made the place even darker," the redhead noted, staring through the windows being pelted by raindrops. "Should we really make the turn back? It might take longer. This rain's getting pretty bad and we can just go all the way."

"I think we should anyway. This place doesn't have enough lampposts," Ben interjected persistently, avoiding having to look out the windows.

"I'm listening to Gwen," the older boy decided quickly, stopping short from doing the u-turn and turning the wheel so that the car went back to their original direction.

"I hate you," the brunette muttered petulantly, slumping farther into the leather seats with his arms crossed.

"No need to get all mushy on me, Tennyson," Kevin mocked, happily driving through the rain.

The light from the car and the dwindling, faint lampposts lit up certain sections of the road but completely enveloped the rest of the area in darkness. The clouds had almost completely obscured the moon. Whatever light that was there allowed Gwen to glimpse a figure walking down the sidewalk. As they neared, the figure pivoted quickly and watched the car as it whizzed closer.

"I think it's a hitchhiker," Gwen remarked, pulling at Kevin's arm who just looked irritated at the idea of picking up someone that would drench his leather seats. As the car continued past the girl - which Gwen could clearly see from the unfortunate short skirt, she tugged harder at her boyfriend's arm. "Don't go past her! Go back."

"I think Kevin should keep going," Ben piped in nervously, clutching at his seat belt. "You know, there's stories about hitchhikers who are actually serial killers or something."

The red-haired quarter Anodyte stared at the Savior of the Universe and iterated flatly, "Uh, hello? Kevin can absorb materials like Taedenite, I've got manna and you have the Ultimatrix. And you're scared of a girl who may or may not be a serial killer?" This made her boyfriend snort in laughter while her cousin just pouted even more at having his reasoning be ridiculed.

"I'm just saying," he tried. Perking up, he suddenly realized another argument and voiced it out, "Besides it's illegal to hitchhike, isn't it? I don't think it's legal to pick up a hitchhiker either."

"What he said," Kevin simply backed up.

"I don't see any cops around here," Gwen pointed out flatly, then began glaring at her boyfriend. "When did you start caring about legalities?"

"Since now," he retorted. She rolled her eyes in response.

With a final insistent nudge from Gwen, the driver hissed as he conceded. "Fine, fine. I'll back up."

The car slowly reversed down the street and the hitchhiker caught up with them. There was a dilapidated street light that shone down on the vehicle and the wet figure that approached them. Underneath the flickering lights, both Gwen and Kevin could see the dark eyes and grateful smile underneath the hoodie. Ben turned to the opposite window and prevented himself from looking for fear that he would recognize the girl.

"Hello," she greeted.

"There's a space at the back," Gwen offered while the driver made his disapproval obvious with a distasteful look. "Hop in."

"Are you sure it's okay?" she tried to confirm. The rain continued to beat down harder, looking like bullets as they dropped heavily on her slight form.

Gwen gave Kevin another helpful nudge, which made him say, "Just get in."

The girl beamed and excitedly said her thanks. As she made her way to the backseat, Gwen murmured her own personal thank you to Kevin. He responded begrudgingly, "Whatever." For this, he received a kiss on the cheek. There was a grossed out groan from the back.

This was all interrupted by the girl entering the car and seating herself quietly.

From the rear view mirror, Gwen could see Ben stare fixatedly at the scene outside his window. His focused expression made it look like it was a lot more fascinating than rubble, overgrown grass and rain.

There was an awkward kind of silence as she settled in from the back, sitting comfortably away from the corner where Ben was trying to squash himself in. All Gwen could do as she stared at the scene was raise a thin ginger eyebrow of confusion at her cousin's unnatural behavior. There was already the increased aggravation coupled with constant need to snap, then falling asleep while waiting for any bad guy action. Now he wanted to add fidgety nervousness and misplaced suspicion on a short, thin, wide-eyed younger girl. Something was definitely wrong here. Did he think she was an alien threat?

Turning around, Gwen attempted to source out any possible aura of malevolence from the general area of the girl's manna. Nothing. Just cool and peaceful. In fact, her boyfriend's aura was more malevolent than anyone else in that car and only because he was seething with annoyance at the dripping rainwater on his leather.

"I'm sorry I got your leather all wet," the girl said sheepishly. "I can't help being wet."

Concentrating on the foggy window was near impossible for Ben now that those words were said. Something about that sentence was awfully familiar but searching his memory lead him nowhere. All he had was just the skip of a heartbeat and the feel of cold down his spine.

"That's what she said," the darker-haired older boy chuckled.

Gwen squinted in confusion then her expression flattened in lack of amusement. "Just making that joke is an insult to anyone with good humor."

"Or it's for people who actually do have a sense of humor," he retorted, smoothly turning the wheel with his knee when he made a dismissive gesture with both his hands.

"Please ignore him," she turned to the girl at the back, who just looked mildly bemused and curious about what the conversation was even about. "He's not used to people."

"I resent that!" Kevin remarked defensively, sticking his lower lip out to pout in mock childishness. "I'm used to all sortsa people."

That was when Ben suddenly decided he could actually pipe in humorously, as if dissing Kevin was a great excuse to join the conversation. "People you usually find in dark alleys and aren't classified under 'polite people'." He made the mistake of turning to the side and looking at where the girl was. After quickly realizing his mistake when he found himself ogling frosted pink, he swiftly turned back to his window. He could literally feel her staring back at him.

"Those people got better humor than the lotta you," the driver responded smartly. "'Polite' just means too busy clenching one hole to open the other hole to laugh."

The hitch-hiker started to giggle in this quiet, girlish chuckle from behind her hand.

To the brunette sitting beside her, it seemed to compliment the muted, rhythmic pattering of the rain on the windows. On any other day when he was reacting normally, he would find it more pleasant than he actually did. That day, his muscles tensed even more like he was just waiting for the time to burst the door of his car side open and roll out of the vehicle in a panic.

Kevin was a little bit adept on the more simple matters of relationships, when it was still on the parts where it didn't involve feelings and being sensitive. He was starting to get the feeling that Ben was either absolutely into this girl or really just scared. Since option B sounded stupid, he decided it was option A. The grin on his face was from ear to ear.

Gwen did not like the look on her boyfriend's face. Hopefully trying to redirect conversation, she introduced, "My name's Gwen Tennyson," she pointed to herself as she looked at the girl, "and this is Kevin Levin," then pointed at the driver's seat.

"The thing on the corner's called Ben," Kevin suddenly piped in, a bit too gleefully, as he nudged his head towards the other boy who happened to be glaring at him by that point. "Poke it. See if it reacts."

Gwen groaned while Ben seethed and was trying desperately to come up with an insult.

"Hi, everyone," the girl responded politely, beaming and waving at the people who were kind enough to pick her up. "My name's Julie Yamamoto."

The older boy nodded, "Is that like Chinese or something?"

"Japanese," Ben chorused with the girl. From the corner of his eyes, he could tell she moved her head to look at him. He refused to look back.

There was an amused, barely contained chortle from the driver. "Oh, that sounds just the sort that Ben would be into." There was much eyebrow waggling into the rear-view mirror so the passengers at the back could see.

When he took a glance at the girl on the seat beside him, she made a swift hand gesture of slicing her fingers across her neck while her expression was what Kevin would describe angry and slightly constipated. He pretended to be completely confused about why she was telling him off.

Ben had slapped his hand across his face in sheer embarrassment, now it wasn't just fear preventing him from having a look at the girl on his side.

"He doesn't look like he likes me very much," the girl responded simply.

Ben could feel the tickle of that inquisitive stare, she must have just been curious about why he was reacting that way to her. Trying to rationalize to himself that nothing dangerous or weird was going to happen, he tried to prep himself at the process of actually looking.

He hated horror movies. They conjured certain sensations that were like the suspense of being out there, without actually delivering the way it did in real life. So maybe he should rephrase that to: he hated the horror situations that was part of his hero deeds. Those were real. Those were proper scares. People dying, the innocent becoming collateral damage, haplessly watching his loved ones be hurt, making the wrong decisions from a cruel ultimatum of a choice. He needed to stop imagining silly horrors that came from behind the screen that just faked the true meaning of a scare. There were real scares in the world and this girl, whatever she could possibly be, was just not it.

"He's a bit weird like that but it's just a Ben way of expressing emotions," Gwen tried to excuse humorously. "He's fine with you."

Just ripped it like a bandaid. Turning his head to the other side of the passenger seat, Ben gave a somewhat shaky smile and said more confidently than he felt, "I'm just feeling a little under the weather. Sorry if I made you feel unwelcome." He smiled broader. The girl who was looking back at him was surprisingly, incredibly normal. Pleasant to look at but not quite the ethereal spectre or the monstrous bloody grotesquery one would expect in those kinds of scenarios. "Anyone who messes up Kevin's car seats are great in my book."

The girl chuckled in good humor.

"You're getting out of the car soon, Tennyson," the dark-haired older boy warned in a deep, threatening tone that was likely to be more pretend than serious.

"What were you doing out in the rain?" Gwen asked Julie, feeling the need to change the subject before the two boys bickered in a more serious way than they were doing at that moment.

"I was out with my friends and my brain just forgot to get a proper way to get me home. I was gonna call a cab but I didn't know if they were gonna find this road," she explained in a defeated tone, but there was some kind of amusement derived from what had happened as well. "I guess it's not too bad since I met some nice people getting lost."

"Wow, your friends told you to get lost and you took it literally?" the smart-assed driver commented jokingly and got elbowed by his girlfriend in response.

"Why, yes, they did," Julie said quickly in a way that sounded matter-of-fact. "That's why when they also said to go find new friends, I did. Literal-mindedness is very helpful." She nodded with her eyebrow raised, still smiling in amusement.

"You were going out around here?" Ben asked sceptically, pointedly scanning the blank meadows being covered in rain from the outside view of the car.

"Well, we walked back nearby my school so I could find my way home easier," she explained further, shrugging and sighing sadly. "All the good that did me. I think I'm directionally challenged."

"Anyway, this convo's all nice and all," the driver interrupted, raising a hand to bring attention to himself. "But where do we drop you off?"

There was a bend coming closer as they finally neared the exit of the road they were taking. To Kevin, he was thanking whatever deity he may or may not actually even believe in about the awesomeness of getting out of the pot-holed, poorly-lit road that was messing up his tyres. Gwen was just thankful for the fact that taking such a hazardous route still allowed them to make it out alive. On the other hand, Ben's previous feelings of settling comfort started to slowly seep out as the road gave him vague memories of anxiety.

"Three houses down after you turn around the corner," the girl explained, all of the other passengers looking at what their hitch-hiker was pointing at.

"I think I know the school that you were saying was close by," the red-haired girl commented observationally, staring at the road until they exited the corner. "It wasn't really that close to here-" Then turned back to where their passenger was and gawked soundlessly.

Kevin took notice of the reaction first, even though he should have been more focused on the direction his car was taking. Out of curiosity for why Gwen suddenly feel silent, he looked back at his rear-view mirror and found only one passenger at the back.

Said passenger looked back at the two people at the front with brown eyebrows knitted together in bewilderment then asked, "What?"

* * *

"There has to be any number of explanations for what happened," Kevin remarked disbelievingly, shaking his head at the idea being proffered. It was just too ridiculous. Okay, aliens. Okay, magic. Ghosts? He wasn't that crazy. "Some kind of joke hologram was installed into my car and if I find out who did it, I will kill him."

Ben responded by sucking through the straw of his smoothie very loudly.

The stare from Gwen prompted the older boy to clarify, "I don't mean that literally."

"With you, I can never tell," she said lowly, giving a more pointed gaze before finally redirecting her attention to her cousin. Patting the brunette's back worriedly, she asked gently, "Are you feeling okay?"

The smoothie drinking just grew stronger and became more intent, with enough force that the redhead was getting scared he would just inhale the Styrofoam cup.

"Why don't I get you another drink?" she offered, tugging the cup out of his hands before her imaginary scenario actually became reality. "This one's all gone." She shook the empty cup to show evidence, but he was too busy staring at the pavement to really pay much attention. "It's on me."

Grabbing her boyfriend's arm gently, she dragged him a certain distance away from her cousin so they could have a more private conversation. Facing Kevin, she stated seriously, "I felt that girl's manna when she was in the car so I could find out if Ben was right and she was some kind of alien threat or something. Someone used to be where she was sitting."

The thick, dark eyebrows that were raised high in disbelief express the ridiculousness of her statement. "That coulda been Ben you were getting magic signals off of," he explained rationally.

"Don't you think I would be able to tell the difference between my own cousin and some girl I've never even met before by their manna?" she asked rhetorically, folding her arms across her chest.

He threw his arms in the air. "I dunno! That life-force stuff isn't my thing."

"Unless you were taking that energy from someone," the young woman muttered to herself somberly, green eyes distant and misty as if recalling numbly painful memories.

There was silence as Kevin took a deep breath. He knew he was just ill-equipped with the right kind of human experiences for emotions to effectively communicate it. In his Kevin brand of thinking, the multiple attempts at sorry and explanations, then the self-pity and spiteful anger at the lack understanding, then the sarcasm all just jumbled into a mess of words. In the end he decided with, "It wasn't me, okay? I didn't want to, not really!"

"I know, I know," she responded soothingly, raising her hands in an appeasing way. "I just - I was so scared." Placing her slightly trembling hand gently in the front of her face, as if they were there to shield a possibility of any signs of her weakness showing. "I thought I was going to…" she looked up at the dark, intense eyes that showed more emotion than actually could be expressed in his words. "…that we were going to lose you." There was strength in her eyes, determination and more of stubbornness than anything. "I worry about you." She looked back at her cousin who sat against the wooden table of the outside area of Mr. Smoothy. "I worry about both of you so much."

There was a snort from the taller figure in front of her. "You really have to stop doing that, worrying about everyone," he said. "You're trying to fix everyone's problems again."

Chuckling sadly, she shook her head. Slapping his forehead very lightly with her fingers, she remarked dryly, "If you guys actually took care of yourselves, I wouldn't have to."

"Excuses, excuses," Kevin tsked disbelievingly. Looking past her towards the person that she was currently wrenching her guts worrying about, he resolved to give her a heft up. "Why don't you get that baby food slush he likes so much and I'll talk to him, yeah?"

"Really? You?" There was much incredulous blinking.

"What, you don't trust me?"

"Not at all," was the very resolute response.

"Just go, I'm not treating him on that gunk," was Kevin's equally resolute response, already heading off to where the other boy was.

Gwen eventually gave in with a quiet sigh and hoped that Ben was finally out of the confrontational mood so that the two could actually have a heart-to-heart conversation. It was just a little bit unlikely for the two of them to even consider heart-to-heart so maybe she should really expect that Kevin would shake her cousin out of his stupor. That seemed more plausible and hopefully with similar results to if she was the one who conversed with Ben.

"You look like crap," the older boy commented mockingly when he walked close enough to the one he was insulting. "Are you that convinced she was a ghost? What are you, ten?" There was no response, which made the older boy a little bit impatient so he approached closer then went, "Boo!" right in Ben's face.

Slowly, a pair of green eyes looked back at pitch black eyes solemnly. "That school she was talking about, there must be some kind of information we can find on this," Ben wondered out loud, biting a fingernail in thought as his eyes finally looked away and flicked side-to-side in consideration.

"It's some stupid joke, Ben," he continued to rationalize, placing a hand on the younger boy's shoulder.

Mouth moving quietly, some words still came out loud enough for Kevin enough to understand. "…at least search the name on the internet," he whispered to the ground, staring in the general direction of some paper trash that was on the ground that floated around on the ground.

"If it'll shut you up on this ghost thing, I'll do all the looking around for you," Kevin finally conceded with a tired, mockingly-exasperated sigh. "All that hero stuff you do is hard enough that it's getting to your head and you're going crazier than I was."

There was a half-released chuckle and a weary smile from the hero of the Universe. That expression was getting way too familiar, resurfacing so much over the past few days. That expression where he looked like his eyes had seen too much, more so than even some who were older than him could possibly have seen in their lifetime. "Yeah? But I thought you had it worse?" Ben reminded, his voice having an underlying tone of entertainment.

"Duh," Kevin retorted. "But gotta give you a bit of credit still."

"Wow, thanks a lot," the brunette replied sarcastically.

There was an out-stretched, pale, thin arm holding a smoothie cup containing a strange concoction that made Kevin flinch at the sight.

"What. Is. That," the older boy stated instead of asked, so utterly grossed out by the smell emanating from the cup and the appearance of the frosted drink that he released a girlish, "Ew."

"Mushroom, olive, wheatgrass and liquorice," said the boy he gratefully cupped the strange brew in his hands.

As he was drinking the weird mixture, his cousin took him by the elbow and drew him away from the other boy who was looking positively green at the idea of such a drink. Ben looked like he was just drinking happily on a normal day, already having forgotten the events of earlier.

"Ben, are you feeling okay now?" Gwen asked in concern, searching through his eyes for the truth in case he felt the need to go solo on whatever he was going through again.

Pausing for a minute, he licked his lips. "I'm still gonna need that spell or charm you can find that's gonna help me go to sleep." He stared at his drink contemplatively. "I'm thinking insomnia's gonna get worse after today."

Rubbing his arm comfortingly, she looked at him sadly for all of two seconds before nodding and already mentally scrolling through her list of books for which might offer remedies.

* * *

It gave him adrenaline. It was a one-on-one practice soccer match against Elena but the amount of focus he had dedicated to it was almost as if he was on an actual competition with his team.

The amused, competitive laughter from Elena as she tried to evade him and prevent him from successfully stealing the ball was a great distraction. The smirk on his face as he found an opening was positively sneaky, snatching the ball with a forceful kick that sent it hurtling towards his side of the goal. The surprise from her gasp was incredibly exhilarating, coaxing him even more to up the ante of his game.

With speed he didn't know his sleep-deprived body could possibly conjure, he sprinted as fast as he could, bouncing the ball on the toes of his sneakers to further its distance. Instead of attempting to steal it, Elena sped past him to try and block him from getting that ball in through the goal.

Giving her the chance to reach the front of the goal, he bounced the ball on his toes, heel, knee, knee, then giving his leg some momentum and snapping it back as the ball rose high, he practically spun to kick it. The force was so much that it careened it past Elena's outstretched hands and she didn't have enough time to catch it.

It went through and hit the net.

When she fell down on the ground, she didn't get up as she was too busy laughing on the grass. He fell down too and joined in her laughter.

"That was pretty amazing," she declared in between bursts of jovial laughter. "Lucky shot, but still pretty good." Pulling herself to a sit on the grass, she stretched out a little bit to paddle the soccer ball that had rolled down even closer to her. "I liked that."

There was heat rising up his cheeks. He didn't know why he still wasn't used to being complimented. Maybe it's just that she was one of those people who he trusted to make an honest compliment that wasn't smooching like the other ones. Also, she was Elena so it was a given.

"You were really good too," he complimented rather shyly, trying not to make his dorky crush too obvious. He was a little worried on being shot down, or maybe his nerves were more frayed than anything. Words just weren't collecting properly in his head to make an appropriate request. He just knew he would stumble, then fail spectacularly, which was certain to end in being shot down. It was the kind of certainty that was reserved for people whose confidence was at an all time low.

His breathing was finally slowing down after such a workout. Clearing his throat, he asked conversationally, "So how are you lately? How's your dad?"

"I'm same old," she responded in a confident tone, shrugging coolly. "My dad's been a little sick lately." He scrunched up his eyebrows in confusion and surprise because the last he had seen of Victor Validus, he was perfectly fine. Especially after that alien swarm event. "I've taken time off Plumber Academy to help him around in the lab, but they sent me a few take home courses like some alien linguistics to keep me up to date. So most times I'm just helping prep dad's machines and experiments." She started to just bounce the soccer ball around to fiddle with something.

To Ben, it seemed so much like Elena to want to always be doing something instead of sitting there doing nothing and waiting. She was very proactive like that, which he thought was really admirable.

Nose scrunched up in distaste, he asked curiously, "Really? Science-y stuff?"

"Yeah, science-y stuff," she remarked flatly, bouncing the ball towards him and he had good enough response time to catch. "I like it. I don't mind helping, it's pretty interesting." The tone was honest so it really seemed to suggest that she might actually consider taking up her father's investigative science work on alien technology.

The brunette exhaled hard in realization. "Wow, you really need to do more than just a few minutes of soccer practice to cool off," he stated lightly, shaking his head as if to suggest it was such a shame. "It's like everything's work for you. Maybe you should, you know, go out with me-"

Against the sun that was behind her, he could barely see her face at a certain angle but it never prevented him from detecting the sharp eyebrow that raised at his words.

"…and Gwen and Kevin sometime," he continued in a deflated tone, as if he had just suddenly backed out from his previous declaration. It did feel a bit rushed for him to suddenly suggest going out. Or maybe he was just more anxious from his lack of sleep. He probably would have been less cowardly on a better day. "We're planning on watching a concert at some point so I thought it might be a good idea. To catch up." He tried to appear flippant when he shrugged. He didn't know if it was believable.

"Gwen and Kevin?" she snorted in spiteful amusement. "Are you sure they're not gonna be bothered with me coming along? I might cramp their style." Her voice was sharp and filled with edges, still filled with the same tensions of unresolved issues what with her feelings of insecurity from Plumber kids with alien ancestry.

He was hoping maybe they could iron it out in a situation where they were forced to interact a little bit more in something else other than fighting for each other and the public's lives. "Are you and Gwen still fighting?" he asked, feeling a little retarded at his silly question.

"I'm not fighting her," Elena answered defensively, blowing at a lock of hair that had interfered in front of her face as if she had a grudge on it. "I just think that you're the only one I actually really get along with properly in your team." Dark eyes looked at him searchingly and beseechingly, as if she really was asking him not to make her go through any possible awkward situation with his cousin or his best friend again.

"You don't want them with us?" he suggested dumbly.

Both eyebrows raised, she then queried carefully, "Are you asking me out?"

Then he was stuck. He didn't know why he was stuck. Heart pounding in his ears, he thought it might have been nervousness preventing him from saying that yes, indeed he was. With a little bit of searching he realized, it wasn't quite that. When he looked at her eyes, it felt like he was looking at the wrong pair of dark eyes. Like they should've been darker, more mellow instead of sharp, wide-eyed instead of worldly.

He needed closure. What exactly for, he didn't know.

It was so frustrating. If he could, he would beat himself up for his lack of guts. But most of all, he would beat himself up for feeling like he was somehow not over something that he didn't know what even happened. Something inside him felt like it was breaking. Which made him angry. Angry at himself. Angry at the dreams that were still bothering him even when he was awake. Angry at a girl he didn't even know was real.

Suddenly becoming closed in, much to Elena's confusion, he refused to look at her and stared at the grass. "I was thinking it was gonna be a group of us thing," he answered lamely.

* * *

Just an internet search of the name from the previous event in the car pulled out news articles of a car accident. A court case on negligent manslaughter. A grieving family. A familiar, familiar face.

"Still isn't convincing me that some douche didn't read this first then made that hologram to screw with your head," the black-haired boy in front of the laptop commented. "You have weirdo fans."

The brunette glared at the computer screen like it wasn't helping him any while he was at the point where he was just so close to exploding. Gnashing his teeth, he gave it a few more moments of staring before he decided to say, "We went to the house she pointed out - three houses down after the curve of that street - and it's empty. I'm pretty sure they moved. Do they have any recent contact information on the girl's parents? "

Kevin shared a look with Gwen, who just sighed as if she was also at a loss for what to do.

"No," the older teen answered simply, clicking a few buttons on the keyboard forcefully.

"Maybe take a look at the alma mater's school records, maybe we'll find out something more important than these things," the redhead finally suggested. "Maybe we can track down some of the police records through the precinct where the report was filed."

"That's hacking," Kevin recapped, just in case she forgot.

She sighed. "I know."

Pretending to cry happily, Kevin mock-sniffed, "I'm so proud."

Impatient for more information, Ben nudged his best friend's shoulder to prompt him to finally get on with the job. The older boy glared at the unwanted touch and dusted it off with his hand, then glowered at the person who pushed at his shoulder, who just glared intensely back. The brunette mouthed, 'Go.'

"Don't rush me," he snapped, raising his hands before he intertwined his fingers and cracked his knuckles. "You don't rush genius."

* * *

"What are we doing here?" Kevin complained in annoyance, slapping his forehead on the wheel of his car.

His red-haired girlfriend walked back towards the car with her fist firmly planted on her hip then peered in through the rolled down window to respond, "We're here to support Ben."

"This is stupid," he grumbled, rolling his eyes to stare at the roof of his car as if it provided the answers to the deep questions behind the mechanisms of the Universe, like why Gwen's cousin was dumb as rocks.

"Supportive," she repeated firmly, her foot now tapping impatiently on the pavement. "Try it." There was a slight pause. "Or else."

Raising a hand, he placed it to his forehead and gestured a very sardonic salute.

The one being insulted on his level of intelligence could care less about the conversation as he finally found himself in front of the door of the house. The newspaper copy they located from a local library held a picture, a very familiar picture and a frighteningly familiar article. He knew that old wounds were painful to scratch. It wasn't good to return all the old pain. He could only imagine just how horrendous it was to be reminded of having lost family.

At that moment, with his finger just floating an inch away from the doorbell, he didn't really feel like he cared. He was so tired. So very, very tired. Tired from the pressure of his work, tired from the hatred and the love of the press and the public, tired from the attention of the living and the dead. He just wanted to be left alone. He just wanted some peace. Maybe if he knew what she wanted, then she could finally let him go. One less problem.

Was it too much to ask? For one problem to go away?

So he pressed the doorbell, clutching the newspaper in his other hand.

The woman who answered the door looked just as tired as he was, old and frayed in so many edges. The creak of the door was probably as bad as the one from her aged bones. The sad eyes looked familiar, but different. Like something he'd seen before. His memory was amazing despite the current rusty cogs from the persistent insomnia and nightmares. Those eyes used to be much younger, like the mother of someone who was still aged fourteen and who would be around sixteen and a half or seventeen at this year.

His eyes grew wide. She looked like her daughter's grandmother now. Much had been lost.

"Hello," he greeted in a hesitant but very polite tone. "I'm Ben Tennyson, I just wanted to know if-"

"You're from the news, right? The kid who saves people from aliens?" she asked in a scratched voice, like she was too groggy and just woke up. The minute nod from him made her continue, "We don't have aliens here."

"It- It's not that," he tried to explain, clearing his throat because it felt like it was drying out as he was speaking. "I just wanted to talk to you about, um, your little girl." The newspaper was held up and presented. "About the accident from before."

Her voice grew even more quiet. "It was a long time ago. All those media have already squeezed every drop of sensation from that. It's all there. I've got nothing to say." She began to close the door, but he reached out to prevent her from completely doing so.

"Please," he begged desperately. "I need to find out about her -"

That was when a male voice intruded, cold and incredibly stern, "Who's that? I hope it's not one of those damn cable people again. I told them to get lost. I know their racket." Loud footsteps drew closer towards the front door.

"It's not the cable people," the tired woman stated in a sigh, looking for all the world like a pack of cards trembling to a slow collapse. "A boy asking about Julie."

The footsteps stopped and the door opened wider, revealing the source of the cold voice. The man looked as severe as his way of speaking. He placed a hand on the woman's shoulder, who took it as a sign to turn back to finally come back inside the house. It seemed like he was intent on making that conversation even more abrupt as he ordered, "Go away."

"Look, I just want to know why she keeps showing up to me and bothering me when I just want her to leave me alone!" he declared persistently, shaking the newspaper in his hand urgently. All of the suffering in his voice just fell out, everything from the day he people found out about his identity to the non-stop demands of his responsibilities to the feeling of losing control of his own life. It started to sound like it wasn't about her anymore. "Just leave me alone." He stared at the ground.

"We all want the same thing, son," the deep, older voice responded. That was how it sounded like. The scratched old, healing wound burst open.

Then the door closed and all he saw was the pristine, varnished wood of the door, so much more peaceful, pleasant and home-like than what was inside it.

In his frustration, he hefted the newspaper across the street as hard as he could. Pieces of paper flew around, like flickering lights of a broken lamppost, like the occasional signs of rain illuminated by the fluorescent lamps. There was nothing here. So his friends took him home.

* * *

When he entered the room, it was tinged with blue from the night. He was going to try and sleep again despite the cynical belief that it was probably just wasted effort. On the inside of his jeans pocket was the charm that his cousin had given for good dreams, to get rid of any negative aura apparently. Patting it gently, he plodded his way into the room. He hoped that this time, it would work much better than the crappy sleeping pills that made him even more exhausted.

Finally reaching the end of his bed, he dropped himself down onto it and rolled lazily onto his back. Before he actually dosed off, he heard a minute sound of something clicking and rolling down the floors of his room.

Sleepily he tried to look for the source of the sound, then slightly gaped his mouth open at the small, shiny colored balls that just rolled around near where his desk was. At the back of his mind, he wondered when he actually bought any gumballs.

It was raining like the clouds in the sky was crying. The deep, muted colors of the area were mournful. He walked for awhile aimlessly, not really knowing quite exactly what he was doing there. The time he found out, there was a loud, deafening sound of tyres screeching across the cement like it was veering out of control.

Then he started to run determinedly to the source of the sound and found the slight figure that was the reason for why he was there. Dialing the Ultimatrix, he immediately became of a more malleable form, which allowed him to swiftly flow down the area where he was needed.

He dragged the figure away from danger, cushioning the impact of force created by inertia. The small girl was cradled in his form before he returned to being human, when he could finally hold her in his arms. Something about this situation felt right. Like it was a memory rather than some kind of new scenario. It must have happened before. Déjà vu.

Her voice willowy and hollow, she sighed in wonder, "You saved me."

"Of course I did," he murmured, voice breaking, cracking, at so many edges. Heart in throat, eyes prickling. "You're my girl."

When he woke up, his screaming wasn't fearful. It was pained. He had absolutely no idea why. So he grasped at tendrils and fluttering bits of what was left in his memory. But they escaped him until there was nothing left but the dull pain.

When his mom and dad went inside the room, they found him curled up at the side of the bed, cradling himself and staring blankly at nothing.

* * *

_Like sand on my feet_

_The smell of sweet perfume _

_Will stick to me forever, baby_

_And I wish you didn't go_

_I wish you didn't go away_

_To touch you again_

_With life in your hands_

* * *

A/N: I think Ben subscribes to the "go crazy batshit angry rather than be sad" at death. 8D

So yeah, I might be pushing the realm of plausibility here. XD I bet you guys did not expect this chapter.


	4. Ain't No Sunshine

Chapter 4: Ain't No Sunshine

The most dangerous of the grieving were those that never said anything. Never cried, never grew angry, never expressed.

There was something wrong with those that functioned too quickly, as if the problem was simply placed in the back of one's mind simmering and waiting. Just there covered in shadows, an ever present problem waiting to burst.

At some point a part of him just decided to stop caring. If Gwen could live with barely a wink of sleep, then he could too. So he put the game face back on, smiled at the world and stopped snapping at fans and the media. He went back to worrying about the next Calculus test and when Dr. Animo tried another zany scheme.

He bounced back easily, drowned everything in smoothies, clapped his trap shut and enjoyed the normalcy of life as long as he never went back to that place. The dreams remained, but he had the habit of forgetting them anyway so it was just the exhaustion that was an inconvenience. Everything was as normal as it could ever possibly be in the life of Ben Tennyson, alien hero, Savior of the Universe.

There was nothing wrong with him, because there was no one to grieve.

-

He looked at her closely, watching the way her dark brows knitted together as if in far away concentration. There was a bead of sweat on her brow.

"Elena?" he asked carefully, trying to gauge her reactions. She seemed distracted.

Looking up, she blinked at him repeatedly as if noticing him for the very first time.

"Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, fine," she responded noncommittally in a rather brusque fashion.

Continuing to stare as politely as he could, he tried to further inquire quietly. He would have otherwise given up trying to coax more out of her if she was going to remain tight-lipped even after that.

Then she said something. "My dad's just been really ill lately. He said he doesn't want to go to the hospital because he's stubborn and thinks he's fine," she muttered somewhat irritably, but more in great concern than anything. "It's been hard to focus on anything else. I keep thinking he should stop working for a little bit and just try to get well first. But he's just not listening to me."

"Stubbornness is a family trait, huh?" he joked, putting as much of a lighthearted tone to it as he could.

There was a brief snorting chuckle sort of sound.

"I was gonna say something about the concert that I mentioned before, but I guess not. Family first," he nodded to her sympathetically. "If you want, me, Gwen and Kevin can drop over your place to say hi."

"What, and you'll talk to my dad?" she retorted disbelievingly, raising an eyebrow.

"Might as well give it a shot," he suggested, beaming a bright heroic smile at her.

She rolled her eyes in skepticism, but still felt a smile tug at the corner of her lips. The way she drew closer to him made his heart beat quickly, fluttering in expectation. At the same time, the blood drumming in his ears and the way his stomach fell like lead made alarm bells go off in his mind.

Then something flashed in her eyes. Something familiar that made him step back. It might just have been his annoying sleep deprivation again, which he had been hell-bent in ignoring. Seeing weird things.

But they found themselves in awkward silence, in an uncomfortable distance without sign of really doing anything about it. He was the first to clear his throat, then move even farther back. Elena looked mildly peeved over his actions, but he looked like he was sending a lot of mixed signals so there wasn't really a question of why.

"I guess I'll see you then? I've got something to go back to," he mumbled half to himself, scratching the back of his head.

"Okay," she snapped coolly.

-

The world that surrounded was dark, as it always was. But there was no rain. Strange that he seemed to remember that there should have been. Instead, there was fog. Coldly swathed the grounds that he had to walk in, so he had to amble aimlessly for a while wondering what his purpose in this place was. If there were any answers here, or any directions. Until he finally grew tired of waiting and the icy coldness of the mist around him couldn't even match the cool, quiet anger that settled on his face like a mask.

Finally having stopped walking, he snapped at nowhere in particular, "Talk to me." His voice remained level as if flattened like a sheet of steel, it only grew more edgy and sardonic. "You're an awfully helpful ghost, aren't you? I read somewhere the dead can't rest because they usually have something to say." His voice had reached a depth even he wasn't familiar with, but his teeth were gnashed tightly together and his throat was constricted painfully in the cold fury. "So. Talk. To. Me." The silence continued. Growing even more impatient, he paced around in an aggressive posture. "Where are you?"

Past the fog, from a bit of a distance a calm pleasant tone called out, "I'm always here, Ben."

He pivoted sharply in the direction of the voice. Pinpointing it specifically proved difficult, as it seemed to come from every location but he strained his ears - like he always did in preparation for attacks, "I can't see you."

The voice would have been soothing any other day, its tone reminded of cool sea breeze playing with chimes on a door of a holiday house. "Then come closer."

He was disinterested in this game of hide and seek this spectre chose to play with him. If his behavior had to be toned down in everyday life, faced here with the source of his constant nightmares and exhaustion, he wasn't going to extend the same courtesy. He snapped abruptly, "To where?"

The more his agitation increased, the lighter and kinder the voice seemed, as if trying to placate him. "Walk; you're already facing the right way. You're always facing the right way."

Ben walked straight, despite not seeing anything in front of him. As he slowly approached, a figure started to materialize as if she was only being obscured by fog. She was sitting underneath a lamppost, cross-legged, with a familiar Galvanic Mechamorph cutting curled up on her lap. There was a kind, inviting smile on her face.

The mysterious girl of his nightmares smiled serenely and invitingly, acknowledging him gracefully, "It's always nice to see you."

With a sneer, he stated flatly, "I can't say the same about you."

The girl stared at the ground with a meek, melancholy smile, before looking back up with an apologetic gaze and asked, "Please, join me."

"I'd rather stand, thanks," he said stubbornly, crossing his arms at the figure. This was probably not even real, a dream ghost created for him in the prospect of heaping his frustration on, if anything. "I just wanna ask you a few quick questions."

The girl in white nodded in understanding, seemingly comfortable even in his incredible aggression. Even patting the Galvanic Mechamorph cutting on her lap, as if this was just a normal quiet conversation over tea time. "Okay."

"How do you know me? I never met you."

There was another smile, ever mysterious as always, making him itch with even more irritation and impatience. "The dead little girl won't be able to recognize you. But I do."

The cryptic response sent an even greater flurry questions in his mind. "Aren't you the dead little girl? And how come you've got Ship? I'm sure he's still alive."

There was a peaceful fond smile directed at the pet alien as she responded, "Yes and no. As for Ship, well, some people never forget." This time she was looking up at him, rather hopefully, searching his face as if he would somehow understand in some sudden burst of clarity.

All it did was add fuel to the fire of his impatience and petulance. "None of your answers make any sense. Who the heck are you, Paradox version 2?"

Also somehow recognising the name, there was a bubble of amused laughter at the comparison before the definitive response, "No." It only further reinforced in him not to extend any kind of care or respect, because it frankly confirmed that she was just a figment of his frustrated imaginations.

Growling, he raised his hands in the air in defeat and anger. "Ugh! You know what? Forget this. I've just had enough! Why are you haunting me? What did I do to you? Why won't you leave me alone?!"

At this outburst, all she did was stare. Always the same sad, somewhat pitying expression. It didn't take long for her to stand slowly and carefully from the ground, placing Ship gently down as she did so. He finally noticed that she was wearing a white tennis uniform, occasionally marked by mud and grass on certain places. Placing her hands on his shoulders, she pulled up a little and kissed him on the cheek. Mouth open in surprise, he looked straight into her sad eyes in confusion. "I'm not haunting you, Ben. You won't let me go."

Eyes slowly, calmly opened to reveal very determined green eyes.

-  
_How does one waltz away from all of the memories?  
How do I not miss you when you are gone?_


End file.
